Pages are a critical mobile network resource and are performed using the Downlink Control Channel (“CCH”), or other similar channels performing the same basic functionality in wireless communication networks. Pages are commonly used to locate a specific mobile communication device or mobile station (“MS”) prior to connecting a call. Pages require proportionally much more network resources because they are sent to all base stations (“BS”) in the paging zone where the network knows the MS is currently located. For networks supporting a variety of packet data services, including but not limited to common web browsing, i.e. best effort (“BE”), or voice-over-IP (“VoIP”), i.e. delay sensitive (“DS”) devices, this potential congestion of the CCH due to excess Page messages is especially problematic for DS services which may have to compete for such resources but inherently need faster access speed, e.g., push-to-talk (“PTT”) devices, etc. When the MS moves outside the current paging zone, it updates the network with route or location update messages in order to resynchronize the paging zone.
An Evolution Data Optimized (“EVDO”) Radio Access Network (“RAN”) is a multi-service broadband wireless packet network that supports both DS, e.g., PTT, and BE, e.g., web browsing, applications. Currently, at least some Third Generation communication systems implementing the EVDO telecommunication standard use Distance Based Paging (“DBP”) as described above. However, DBP has proved to be insufficient for paging requirements and difficult to optimize. Deployed networks have shown paging zones are much larger than desired for BE applications.
In attempts to solve this problem, simply reducing the size of the paging zone conserves CCH bandwidth, but the Uplink Access Channel (“ACH”) capacity is adversely impacted. When the DBP radius is large, the network has to page a large number of BSs to establish contact with the mobile device, which wastes CCH resources. When the DBP radius is small, CCH resources are saved, but the mobile device has to update the network at the boundary of each reduced zone. These more frequent updates make use of the ACH (with greater frequency), which increases contention between competing ACH users, e.g., for setting up calls, and increases network ACH signaling processing load. Because the geometric radius of the paging zone is decreased, not as many BSs are involved in forwarding a page. However, the time required for the MS to actually receive a page may increase because the MS may no longer be located in the smaller paging zone, requiring the system to systematically increase the paging zone. Additionally, the battery life of the MS is reduced as the receive circuitry of the MS must stay in an active condition for a longer period of time waiting to receive the page.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for more intelligently determining the radius of a paging zone in a broadband wireless network in relation to the mobility characteristics of the mobile device and the application characteristics that triggered the network page.